Got my new 1200 from AmigaKit.com yesterday!
Here's the slide show to prove it!
First day experience:
After taking photos and setting things up, the first thing I wanted to do was get a baseline benchmark for the original system (which is still several times faster than my original 7mhz A500). This meant that I needed to copy files between my new system and my old. There are several ways to copy files between the two, including:
* via 3.5" Disk via CrossDos which allows the Amiga to read 720kb DOS disks.
* via CF Card - I have have a PCMCIA/CF Card reader that allows the Amiga to r/w to them.
* via Ethernet - The Amiga has a PCMCIA 802.11b adapter.
I decided to go the CF Card route since I have a few 512mb and 1GB cards around that my Canon camera uses. Easy, right? Wrong! Well, the Amiga side was easy. I installed the drive disk everything was up and running fairly quickly. The Mac/PC side literally chewed up HOURS of my day. You see, I usually just use the Camera's build in USB to transfer photos to the Mac/PC. The problem is that I needed to copy files. The camera itself does not show up as a mass storage device or a mounted drive. The next solution was to use my printer's built-in CF card reader. That took about 30 minutes just to access the SMB share over the network and another hour or so trying to get proper permissions setup on the printer to write to the card. Argh! In the end, no matter how much finagling I did, I was only able to read files off and not write them. Finally I tried some old junkie USB CF-Card reader that was hanging around the house. But that didn't work because of missing drivers which were no-where to be found/incompatible with all my systems. Here is one instance where the Amiga was actually easier to get going than the modern stuff! I had to make a late night run over to best buy to get a reader. BTW, best buy staff is totally useless when it comes to finding products in their own store! Useless! How is this place still in business?
CF Card is now working on the Mac/PC but that left very little time left in the day and I was pretty tired of technology by then which was completely no fault of the Amiga.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Amiga 1200 - Day 1
The 68060 - The last of the V8 interceptors
Phase5's Blizzard 1260 Accelerator board
I had originally spec'd out a 68030 accelerator board to boost my new (yet to arrive) Amiga 1200's
There's more...
While a 40mhz 68030 CPU is no slouch, it was apparently just adequate for running OS 3.9 (the last AmigaOS which runs on the 68k series). I was settling on this board simply because the company that sells the "NEW/Old Stock" machines also sells "New/New Stock" accelerators from a company called M-Tec. It wasn't the best board but it certainly would get the job done. And what's the reason for upping a stock Amiga to a 68030? From everything I've read, it's because the newer OS (OS 3.1, 3.5, 3.9) require some serious horse power. During the course of the last two weeks, I carefully have been lurking the market place forums for faster board to no avail.
I finally decided to post a simple "WTB: Blizzard 1260" on the Amiga.org marketplace forum. The first reply I got was somebody giving me the "Pa-shaw! Good luck buddy!" Apparently everyone and their crazy brother (who is locked in the basement) is pulling a Leonard Nimoy In Search Of episode trying to track these things down. But low and behold I was persistent and finally a nice individual in VA decided to let one go from his collection. I won't say how much I paid in order to save myself the embarrassment of buying 15 year old technology but it out-priced my 1200 system by a factor of TWO. Yep, just like the old days where the expansion parts always cost more than the system.
So what's going on here with the crazy prices of this Amiga hardware? Well, it looks like our beloved Amiga has entered the world of "The Collector" (say it in a long hallway so you get the appropriate reverb effect). Apparently things have actually settled down a bit because of the world-wide-cash-drought which means that nobody has that kind of dough to plunk down on antiquated hardware as much as they used to. BUT STILL, Amiga parts are pricey. It's all about the supply and demand and in today's world there isn't a heck of a lot of new Amiga hardware being made. I was quite shock and relieved to find a few loyal (mostly German) companies still making new things for these systems.
Back to the topic at hand. My blizzard 1260 board arrived and I'll be overjoyed once my system gets here from the UK!
This board has some interesting features:
* Obviously the 50mhz 68060 CPU. It has a built in FPU (floating point unit) which the AmigaOS can utilize through a MathLib library. Previous versions of the CPU required a separate FPU (just like how intel had the 8086/8087 combo). The CPU also sports an MMU although I'm not exactly sure how that ties into the OS as of yet. I always thought it was software which handled that. I will research this more.
* The board supports up to 128MB of RAM -- You know, those old 72pin SIMMS circa 486 days. This is actually quite a bit of RAM for the Amiga since they normally come with like 0.5MB of RAM. What to do with all that? Rent it out?
* The board can be disabled by holding down the "2" key on startup. This is for compatibility with old games
* The board automatically copies the Amiga Kickstart ROM into it's own FAST memory to speed up operations.
* The board supports an optional SCSI expansion board that gives you a fast 32bit Ultrawide SCSI interface that is DMA driven. This means you could plug in your old 10,000RPM cheetah drive that has been sitting in the closet for the past 7 years.. Oh, I guess that's just me with the Cheetah drive.
More fascinating information about the Blizzard 1260 can be found here at this awesome website which lists just about every piece of Amiga-related hardware ever made.
Read More...
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
My Dream Amiga System
In order to celebrate my own personal 20 year anniversary with my love for all things Amiga, I decided to order and build out a BRAND NEW Amiga 1200 system...
First off, I must that post 1995 the Amiga had really become somewhat of a rather large paper weight with all sorts of paper weight accessories including hundreds of 3.5" Amiga disks full of games, apps and utilities. I also had a hefty stash of Amiga books including 8 Abacus titles as well as several official Commodore reference manuals. Around 1998 I inherited my ex-best friend's Amiga 500 system which was nearly identical to my own minus the stereo speakers in his 1084 monitor and yellowed case. For some reason my own 500 did not have any yellowing of the plastic (knock on plastic). So I then inherited even more 3.5" disks. And somehow I managed to never jettison all this fabulous retro hardware out the airlock whenever I made a serious life change.
So that brings us up to 2009 where I find myself longing for the passion that the Amiga once gave to me and reconnecting to this old hardware and the Amiga community.
One of the first things I discovered while spending countless evenings surfing the tons of great information about the Amiga, was that there is still a (hopefully) thriving Amiga marketplace. I started looking around and found that the term "Amiga" on ebay brings up tons of people selling games, books and real Amiga hardware. Everything from the original 1000s, 500s, 2000s which I was quite familiar with. Then we have the missing link era of Amiga (for me) which includes the newer AGA chipset. These machines include the 4000 and 1200. I then found out there there is a British retailed called Amigakit.com which sells tons of Amiga hardware and software. They even have BRAND NEW unsold stock of Amiga 1200s! I had made up my mind! No longer would I settle for other people's used, modified and yellowed equipment. Just as in 1989 when I bought my brand new Amiga 500, I would be purchasing one of these NEW machines!
Now the great thing about Amigakit.com is that they will actually install and test any additional expansion parts you wish before they ship it off to you. This is great because they sell everything from flicker fixers to memory expansion.
So here is the system that I ordered:
** NEW (old stock) Amiga 1200 - this comes with a Motorola 68020 chip at 20mhz and 2mb of CHIP RAM.
** MTec "E-matrix" 1230 - A M68030 chip running at 40mhz with 32mb of FAST RAM!
** PCMCIA ethernet RJ45 adapter for the 1200's PCMCIA slot
** USB port
** Indivision AGA flickerfixer - Let's you plug your Amiga into any modern CRT/LCD panel
** Internal IDE 4GB CF hard drive - let's you boot your Amiga into solid state storage!
** OS 3.9 CD - This is the last version of the Amiga OS before it got splintered into various other projects. This is the last version that runs on 68k CPUs.
** A newer Amiga mouse - An improved version of the original 2 button
So I submitted my order and patiently waiting for them to build and bench test the system. I must say that I am overjoyed with the idea that I will be getting a brand new amiga with brand new accessories and expansion parts! This Amiga is brand new architecture (to me) because it has a different chipset called AGA and a newer OS. My Amiga 500 came with OS 1.3 and had the OCS chipset. So there are many many facets of this system that are new and magical to me! I am literally like a kid in a candy store! I have not looked forward to a new computer system in a very very long time. The last magic moment I had with computing was when I made the transition from Windows to Mac OS X. I am anxiously waiting for my brand new Amiga and I will document it every step of the way!
Until then... cheers!
Saturday, October 10, 2009
People still create on the Amiga
I have spent many of my nights catching up on the Amiga's history post 1993 when I seemingly lost interest in my beloved A500. I'm continually shocked to see how many brilliants minds are still developing hardware and software for this system of the past. And oh how I love the Amiga community. I sincerely expected to find a bunch of empty forums but yet again I'm amazed at the communities that are still supporting one another. I am actually feeling more connected to the Amiga community than I did back when the system was new in 1989. The level of comradery is amazingly high. And yes, I see that people get disenchanted and eventually leave and perhaps threatening to sell all their old equipment and move on leaving the past behind. But then I see new faces pop up and express their desire to renew their interest in an old friend.
So here is a little animation created by on an Amiga 4000 by Eric Schwartz. The music is from the game Portal and was cleverly adapted to fit the Amiga's story.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Amiga upgrade - Part 1
UPGRADES!
The midnight oil was really burning last night. I got a few packages in the mail that included:
2MB Agnus board - 2MB Agnus (8372A) + 2MB all in one!
PLCC Extractor Tool
I put together a little slide show of the installation here. Read More...
Monday, October 5, 2009
My computer history 1970s-1980
So I started to think about all the various computer systems I've owned and run across over the years and I wondered if I could actually remember them all. Here goes...
1978 : While visiting my Uncle's house in CT, I got to play with one of these:
The coleco Telstar Alpha. As I remember it, it was a 2 player only game system so I had to bug my Uncle(s) to play with me. It was a precursor to the Atari 2600's Combat game. The best part of this system was the tank stick controls which really felt like it would be how a tank should be driven (from an 8 year old's perspective).
1979 : My friend David (who was spoiled rotten), got the first Atari 2600 on the block.
I distinctly remember the all night "Adventure" session that myself and my two best friends set upon. Having a strict father, I was forced to go home early and when I came back bright and early the next day, my friend Mark was still playing. It was the first official all-nighter video game session that I can remember. My friend Mark eventually got his own 2600 (from series re-branded as Telegames). And my Mother bought one for me in 1980. I had many cartridges but my favorites were Asteroids, Pitfall and Yars Revenge. My friend Mark got frustrated very easily and actually destroyed his Family's "large screen" Curtis Mathes TV by violently pushing it into the wall. My own father, who was an electronics engineer actually covered for him by telling his parents that the Atari destroyed the TV. True story! Mark left a wake of Atari joystick destruction.
To be continued!
Friday, October 2, 2009
The Apple Amiga of my Eye!
It was 20 years ago today
The excitement of that fateful day will always be with me. This is a computer that I had dreamed of owning since I first saw it at an independent computer store while shopping for my Apple IIc computer back in 1986. As much as I loved that Apple computer, it had an architecture dating back to the mid-70s. The Amiga 1000 was the machine I first fell in love with. I remember it was running a demo of Deluxe Paint at the time and the images that were being displayed on its color monitor were striking (for the day):
Although quite ironic, I ended up selling my Apple //c three years later in order to come up with enough dough to buy my Amiga 500.
The Amiga was quite an amazing machine. Designed originally by Jay Miner and bunch of ex-Atari engineers. These engineers, who were quite unsatisfied with how Warner communications had been running the show at Atari, decided to venture off on their own and form Amiga Technologies, Inc. They made a joystick and some other small hardware but the big picture project was a new computer system. Much like many of the computer systems in the days of 8 bit systems, it was usually just a handful of people working ridiculous hours with a dedication and passion that allowed them to design such wonderful creations. The Amiga computer had features which were truly put all the market leaders computers to shame (C64, Apple II, TRS80, et al). The most amazing part of the amiga was it's sound and graphics which unlike the Apple II was controlled by a custom chip set which offloaded the work from the CPU. This, combined with a "start of the art" 16bit CPU (The Motorola 68000) and a multitasking operating system is what the Amiga legend is made from.
Amiga, Inc and it's technology was eventually purchased by Commodore (minus their founder Jack Tramiel who had purchased Atari). The Amiga technology found it's way in their first machine called the Amiga 1000 and then eventually a lower cost machine known as the Amiga 500. The Amiga 500 was the machine that I purchased in the summer of 1989.
This computer has and will probably always be the most soulful, creative and enjoyable computer I've ever had the pleasure of owning. I've owned a lot of beige boxes and unmemorable laptops and even some of the new Apple Macs but none live up to the Amiga Legend.
And so begins my adventure back into Amiga-Land!
Read More...